Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: Simon

What is the parish church of the tiny village of Saint-Hilaire-la-Croix today, was the church of a priory, depending from Mozat around 1165. In the beginning the priory was named "Saint-Hilaire-lac-rouge", but over the time, the old name got a little "deformed". There is not much known about the priory. In the early years it served the pilgrims on their way - and somehow it was important enough, to built (and finance) such an extraordenary church. Bernard Craplet ("Auvergne romane") dates the building phase from around 1100 to 1200. Later Augustinian Canons and Vincentians lived here. Not a sucess story for the next centuries the buildings were sold already in 1742. Sofar all photos from Saint-Hilaire-la-Croix showed the elaborate northern portal used by and built for the pilgrims and the general public. The monks of the priory entered the church, after having walked through the (lost) cloister, through the much smaller southern portal. The nicely carved, semicircular tympanum depicts Jesus, Simon, two other guests and Mary Magdalene. Luke 7:36-7:38 36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. -- The beast to the right of the scene seems a relative of the pillar-eaters that flank the northern portal.

The Knights Templar founded a convent here with chapel dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. Parts of this chapel may have been "incorporated" into Notre-Dame-de-Joie. Most of the nave, the transept and the apse date back to the 12th century. The many capitals seen here are very delicately carved, what is pretty unusual for Brittany. Some art historians see influences from Poitou-Charente. Often Catherine of Alexandria holds a wheel, sometimes she is even named "Saint Catherine of the Wheel". Catherine was sentenced to death on the breaking wheel, but, at her touch, this wheel was miraculously destroyed. As the wheel here is intact, the person seen cannot be Saint Catherine. Maybe this is apostle Simon the Zealot, as there is a saw as well. As Simon was martyred by being sawn in half, a saw can often be seen as his identifying attribute.